Choose Your Own Stabventure In Dishonored’s New Trailer

Share this:

Interactivity sure is neat, huh? Why, I bet one day we’ll even be able to control the characters directly – like, with a mouse and keyboard. I know, I know: silly old Nathan and his craaaaaaazy ideas. Ah well, let’s jump back to reality, where we abandoned our pursuit of true “video games” in favor of smellovision back in 1983. Today, I have for you an interactive trailer of Dishonored. It lets you choose between many enticing options – sometimes up to four! A word of warning, though: it’ll knock you unconscious, throw you into Jello, and then drag you straight into spoiler territory if you’re not careful.

Fun! Did you unleash the hounds? I unleashed the hounds. Also, in spite of my sarcasm earlier, I actually appreciate that this one tosses out four or so options where most games would offer two. It does a pretty good job of showing just how open Dishonored levels can be, I think. On top of that, there were quite a few things to get on top of. It definitely hearkens back to Deus Ex’s tendency to wage invisible wars – not invisible walls. If you see a place, you can probably find a way to reach it.

Honestly, though, Dishonored’s only a few days out from release, and it’s a totally unproven franchise; I certainly wouldn’t mind a full-fledged demo at this point. I mean, I’m all for interactive trailers, but this strikes me as a bit of a cop-out. Plus, it’s hard to understand the sheer elation of Dishonored’s expansive, freeform power set without actually messing around with it for yourself. Maybe we’ll see a demo next week? Here’s hoping. Regardless, what I’ve played of Dishonored has been pretty special. If you’re still on the fence, you should probably get off it. Fences are often sharp, so I can’t imagine that’s particularly pleasant for you.

You do know that bethesda is a publisher, yes? not a developer. True, publishers decide on what actually gets published, but bethesda has let dev teams creative freedom in the past, I doubt theyre gonna stop now.

I don’t buy that whole “developer freedom” thing when it comes to Bethesda. They come off as the kind of company that like to keep a short leash on their devs. Rogue Warrior, Brink, RAGE, and Hunted all stank of heavy-handed publisher interference to me.

Or maybe those games were just bound for suck status anyway. Regardless, I doubt Bethesda is as open minded as they claim to be when it comes to how much leeway their developers actually get. What AAA company really is?

SkittleDiddler, you might be right about Bethesda keeping a tight leash on developers in terms of deadlines, budget and such, but as far as story goes, I believe you are mistaken. For example, New Vegas’ narrative was pretty damn deep. And especially in comparison to Fallout 3.

So in short, I doubt they’ve had anything to do with Dishonored’s narrative.

Actually I think Bethesta is open in this case. From what I have seen Dishonored is extremely similar in style to what the developers have done before. Not just the features but the whole feeling of the game. There is just no way they could have done it like this without creative freedom. Arkane studios made Dark messiah without creative freedom and it shows, still ended up as a good game though

They’re a private company, I don’t see why you expect them to have a particularly tight leash on developers. And is it really that difficult to understand the difference between a developer and publisher? People seem to get mixed up about it all the time.

Actually just by typing in your last comment you clearly showed you know pretty much nothing. Being a private company doesn’t mean anything? Really? How’s about being completely self-funded and not having to answer to share-holders? That’s kind of a VERY big deal, wouldn’t you agree? They impose their ideas onto their studios? O rly, last time I checked, anyone who has worked with them begs to differ.

Brink didn’t stink of publisher interference. It was very much in line with what the developers has done in the past – a few good, but badly implemented ideas that don’t make the game into something really worthwhile.

Rage didn’t stink of publisher interference. It had all the strengths and weaknesses every id game has ever had. Even suggesting there was any interference is laughable considering the game was already very much past the pre-production stage years before Bethesda even bought them.

Hunted didn’t stink of publisher interference. InXile haven’t made a single game that actually justifies Brian Fargo’s reputation, look at their previous work.

And nice of you to ignore New Vegas as well, just to point it out.

I don’t mind if you are needlessly prejudiced, but please don’t try to justify it in such a manner. We all know far too little about Bethesda as a publisher, don’t presume to know more than you actually do.

Chill out, Xardas. Bethesda as a privately held company is irrelevant to the topic. They feel the urge to make a profit, so their behavior is going to reflect that. If that’s not the case, would you care to explain Beth’s obsession with releasing mediocre low-content DLC and charging $60 for new releases?

I never claimed to know better than anyone else here. If you can prove my supposition wrong, I’d be glad to post a retraction. As you yourself wrote: “We all know far too little about Bethesda as a publisher”. Considering what you responded to me with, that obviously applies to you too. In fact, your rant comes off as a not-so-subtle attempt at back door fan service.

I’m man enough to admit that I’m not a fan of Bethesda. So fucking what?

As for New Vegas, it was a buggy, gitch-ridden piece of shit for months after release. I blame all that squarely on Bethesda’s horrible long-standing habit of bypassing even the minimal amount of QA testing.

And not on the fact that EVERY OBSIDIAN GAME has had those problems? I am not a fanboy, how can I be of a publisher so new on the market. But it seems to me you simply hate them for the sake of hating them.

Interesting though how none of the other games mentioned had such problems with bugs, eh? Rage, Brink etc?

Ugh, Xardas. Obsidian have always had issues with publisher interference. They have never been allowed to finish a game on their own time and terms, and that includes New Vegas. This isn’t exactly a secret — there have been a plethora of articles over the years written about Obsidian’s pub problems. They’re not perfect, but they certainly can’t take all the blame for the quality of their final products.

Bethesda have been making video games since 1986. Don’t be ashamed to be called out for being a fanboy.

And are you actually claiming that neither RAGE or Brink or “etc.” didn’t have any bugs on release? Are you serious? Did you even play any of them? Jesus Tittyfucking Christ. Come back when you do some research.

For example, when I tried to extract an unconscious evil scientist for interrogation, I had to drop him for a sec to fight some guards. When the fight got a bit hairy, I SUMMONED A HORDE OF RAVENOUS RODENTS to aid me, who promptly ignored the angry flailing guards and went straight for the very passive, unconscious scientist, who was promptly flayed alive by a squeaky tornado of scurrying fury. Mission failed. I love it.

A feature I want to see. After you send your preorder receipt to the game company, they send some money to the site that convinced you to buy it, and then you are able to filter all follow up marketing and hype.

It’s the worst. These are both certain buys for me (though I hate pre-ordering on principle). Not sure what I’m going to do when they release though, since I just got Borderlands 2 and am loving it but after like 2 hours of gameplay I got distracted by FTL, which has pulled me in and just will not let go, a metaphorical tractor beam that I hope becomes literal add-on content.

I think I’m going to have to alienate all my friends so they stop asking me to hang out with them. There are games to be played!

In recent times RPS coverage seems to be 50% Dishonored – what’s up with that? As a triple-A skeptic I think it might end up as just another solid but overall uninspired shooter with a few gimmicks here and there as is the norm these days.

Nope, Dishonored is fine. And it is very inspired. This is coming from a guy who got bored to death by Deus Ex:HR after 4 hours of playing, Bioshock too come to think of it. There is something magical about Dishonored, if you have played any of the old LookingGlass classics you know the feeling

For me it was the other way around. I was worried when promises was being made but plesantly suprised as we got to see more. Just take one run through of the video adventure above, turn sound up and light down. Thats the looking glass feeling right there

The otherwise great Half life 2 was designed by playtester committie and felt a bit bland as a result. IMO this does not seem to be a problem for Dishonored. Only letdown for me was the mission markers that thankfully can be turned off

The only thing I heard is that there are some hints here and there with regards to where you need to go, and that doesn’t sound too bad. Especially if you can customize the UI to turn the more overly helpful elements off.

Other than that minor issue which I never thought of as a real issue at all, the game sounds like a healthy mixture of Deus Ex (the original), Thief and Bioshock.

Deus Ex Human Revolution was great but it played it really safe with its tight gameplay mechanics. Not a lot of room for experimentation or unexpected interaction between different mechanisms. Dishonored is the real immersive sim I’ve been waiting forever for. There hasn’t really been a game like that for a long time.

I haven’t really heard anything really bad about Dishonored other than the pre-order DLC thing which isn’t much. Then again, Bethesda’s marketing of this game has been very tight and controlled so we’ll have to wait for the reviews to see if any unexpected issues come up, as it did with Human Revolution’s boss fights.

It’s been tough to decide between Dishonoured and XCom. I’ll have both eventually, but must choose one to purchase next week. XCom is ten dollars less, but that doesn’t actually impact my decision. Releasing an early demo does, though.

The only thing Dishonored has going for it (as far as my decision is concerned) is that it is out a day earlier!

I decided on XCOM over Dishonored because of Dishonored’s retailer specific pre-order packages. To me it’s unacceptable to offer different in-game skills based on where you bought the game (Arcane Assassin, Shadow Rat, Backstreet Butcher, and Acrobatic Killer Downloadable Upgrade Packs depending on where you buy the game).

This one is by no means a must-buy, because I only know what I HOPE the game will be like (Deus Ex). I’ll have to parse reviews for useful information, but I’ve got this kind of worry that this will be a bit too “modern” for my taste. I’ll have to try to figure out how linear it feels, and how many of the choices are made too obvious. I hate when games insultingly place neon signs that say “Go left for stealth path, go right for action path!” Less obvious choices actually make you feel clever for finding better paths. Also hope there is some kind of benefit for not being murder-happy… and not some stupid achievement but some kind of benefit in the game world. I literally have no idea how fleshed out the RPG-character development will be, though this could be my fault.

XCOM on the other hand, I already know pretty much exactly what it is, and have decided it looks damn fun, so that was an easy pre-order.

To be fair even the great Deus Ex had a few too many linear sections, but HR was even worse with all those premade paths that made everything feel a bit too convenient. Dishonored seems to follow the Thief model pretty close. That means open levels that are less path oriented. In Deus Ex terms: expect sandbox levels with the size and freedom of Liberty island but not rpg hubs ala Hong Kong.

The RPG part is simple skill unlock ala deus ex HR. No xp system though, you have to find hidden runes to buy new skills. The conversations are handled like Deus Ex 1: simple choices made at key moments. And there are many benefits of playing non lethaly. The entire game will get darker and more violent based on how many you kill. The story will change too.

Why so much hype for this game, may I ask? It looks like a textbook sneaky-stabby, with some superpowers thrown in to make it easy. Is it the story or something that sets it apart? Are people really excited for a game that lets them choose between killing a guy from a windowsill or killing them from a sewer grate? Did nobody wince when the entrance to a secret sewer was in plain sight at the bottom of some stairs? I’ll definitely be playing the game, I just don’t get why so many are hailing it as if it reaches some zenith of gameplay design.